Democracy for New Mexico

New Record: Conservative Senate Obstructionists Block Legislation 62 Times This Session

A new report details the strategy being used repeatedly by conservative Repubs to block the will of the majority in the U.S. Senate. My suggestion? Make the obstructionists carry out their filibusters on the Senate Floor instead of allowing them merely to say they are filibustering when they're really just threatening to do so, and relying on a 60-vote cloture rule to keep legislation from being voted upon and passed. The Carpetbagger Report has a discussion on the murky pros and cons of such a tactic. I think it's worth a try.

From the Campaign for America's Future:
This week the Republican Senate minority filibustered an omnibus budget bill, setting a modern-day record for blocking the most legislation during a congressional session. A new report released by the Campaign for America's Future details the 62 times conservatives have used the filibuster to block legislation (or force modification of bills) in the first session of the 110th Congress. In just the first year of this two-year Congress, their use of the filibuster in the Senate topped the previous record, reached during the entire 107th Congress.

The new report outlines every bill filibustered, vetoed or threatened to be vetoed by President Bush. Conservatives filibustered bills to end the occupation of Iraq, provide soldiers in Iraq rest time equal to their deployments, support renewable energy and grant residents of the District of Columbia representation in Congress. This week's record-breaker involved a $516 billion budget package passed by the House to fund the federal government in 2008. The conservative minority demanded $20 billion additional funding for the war and opposed House language to bring troops home, and threatened a filibuster to prevent the bill from getting an up or down vote.

"In just one session, a minority in Congress has prevented a mind-blowing 62 pieces of legislation from going to the floor for an up or down vote," said Campaign for America's Future co-director Roger Hickey. "Our report shows how over and over again, the uncompromising minority has thwarted the will of majorities in Congress and of the American people, holding the Senate floor hostage to a radical right-wing agenda."

Sixty votes are needed to invoke cloture and end a filibuster. The 62nd cloture vote of the session is more than any single session of Congress since at least 1973, the earliest year cloture votes are available online from the Senate. Republicans are on pace to force 134 cloture votes to cut off a filibuster, according to the Campaign for America's Future analysis, more than double the historical average of the last 35 years.

Even pieces of legislation that have made it past the Senate filibuster blockade have been obstructed by President Bush. Last week the President vetoed for the second time a popular bill that would expand health coverage for 10 million American children.  According to the Campaign for America's Future report, Bush has threatened to veto 84 bills and has vetoed six as of December 17. In contrast, during the period when the Republicans were in the congressional majority, Bush went the longest time without vetoing a bill since President Arthur Garfield.

Eric Lotke, Campaign for America's Future research director and lead author of the new report, calls the obstruction a "deliberate strategy." He observes that the congressional Republicans block legislation, then blame the Democrats for getting nothing done. "It's like mugging the postman and then complaining that the mail isn't delivered on time."

The story of this historic level of obstruction has recently been covered by The New York Times, but has yet to be fully told in the media. The new Campaign for America's Future report shows how major media outlets describe the 60-vote threshold as an ordinary procedure, neglecting that this tactic is an unprecedented assertion of minority control.

Click for a copy of the Campaign for America's Future report Block and Blame: The Conservative Strategy of Obstruction in the 110th Congress (pdf).

NM-01: Win Lunch with Martin Heinrich at Scalo's

In January, five contributors to Martin Heinrich's campaign for Congress in NM-01 will be treated to lunch with the candidate at Scalo restaurant in Albuquerque. If you make a donation at his website between now and 11:59 PM on December 31, you'll be entered into the drawing to win lunch. If you're a winner and can't make it to lunch, or you're from out of town, you'll get a New Mexico care package complete with green chile and a call from Martin.

Click to make a contribution and enter the drawing. According to Martin,

It's absolutely critical that we have a strong fourth quarter. My finance director told me that we have to raise at least $10,000 through the internet between now and December 31st if we're to make our goal. I told her that I had faith that together, we can raise at least $10,000 online."

To track our progress, there's a balloon on the front page of my website that updates occasionally showing the latest online contributions tally. I need you to help fill the balloon by making a contribution. Together, we can make sure that we have the resources we need to fight back against the Republican noise machine. Please, help us fill the balloon, earn a chance for lunch with me at Scalo and help us make sure we have the resources to beat back the Republican attack machine!"

Click to read more of Martin's message. Visit the campaign website at www.martinheinrich.com, as well as the campaign blog at www.martinheinrich.com/blog.

To read our previous coverage of the Congressional race in NM-01, visit our archive.

NM-03: Wiviott Says Energy Bill a Good ‘First Step;’ More Action Needed

Calling Congressional passage of an energy bill a good “first step,” Santa Fe small businessman and NM-03 Congressional candidate Don Wiviott said today that America’s leaders must do more to make America energy independent. Wiviott, a home builder who has pioneered green-building practices in New Mexico and is a highly respected voice on energy conservation, has made energy independence a major focus of his campaign.

“When it comes to issues like global warming and energy conservation, recent days have brought progress from Washington, DC, to Bali,” said Wiviott. “The energy bill in Congress is a good first-step, but it is only that –- a first step. Now that we’re moving in the right direction, we must pick up the pace and make up for lost time.”

As a home builder, Wiviott says he designs projects with one goal in mind: reducing their impact on the environment. His work, including Santa Fe’s THE LOFTS, has been praised for incorporating renewable materials, for taking advantage of the latest energy efficient technologies and for finding innovative ways to recycle water and waste. Wiviott’s energy-efficient communities are home to hundreds of New Mexico businesses and residents.

Wiviott’s commitment to enacting smarter energy policies goes beyond his business. When the 2007 New Mexico Legislature enacted legislation to promote clean energy, Don was a leading voice urging them to increase solar initiatives.

“Our security, our economy and our way of life depend on us making greater use of renewable energy sources,” said Wiviott. “We need a major investment in clean energy, which is why, as a Congressman, I will call for an Apollo-like project to develop strategies and technologies that will help us combat global warming and move towards energy independence. “

Wiviott noted that it was a Democratic Congress that ushered the energy bill through.

“For too long, this White House and Republicans in Congress ignored the growing energy crisis. While families paid more at the pump and evidence of global warming continued to mount, they sat on their hands. Today, Democrats in Congress put America back on track. Now it is time for George Bush to come to the table, stop dragging his feet and finally to take action to develop a real renewable energy policy.”

Wiviott continued, “The time has come and gone for political posturing on this issue. America needs everyone to come together and get the job done. As someone who knows that economic success and environmental protection go hand-in-hand, I have the ability to bring all sides together in Washington and make the real progress America needs.”

To read our previous coverage of the 2008 NM-03 Congressional race, visit our archive.

Fight Against FISA Telecom Immunity: What Next?

Dodd's message to netroots on (temporary) victory

Must Read: Glenn Greenwald's post on the Anatomy and significance of Monday's FISA victory. Excerpt:

By itself, derailing a bill that Harry Reid and Jay Rockefeller, hand-in-hand with GOP followers of the White House, were working so hard to ensure would pass smoothly is a major victory. That is particularly true given that the entire cast of standard establishment defenders and propagandists -- all fed by the Jamie Gorelicks and the rest of the bipartisan slew of slimy telecom lobbyists working in the dark and suddenly feeding the coffers of key pro-immunity lawmakers with new infusions of cash -- all lined up behind giving the extraordinary gift of immunity to telecoms.

Even now, in the wake of his defeat yesterday, Harry Reid is doing everything possible to undermine efforts to defeat the telecom immunity bill that he claims he opposes. This is from today's Washington Post article detailing the defeat of telecom immunity ("in the face of more than a dozen amendments to the bill and guerrilla tactics from its opponents, Reid surprised his colleagues when he announced there would not be enough time to finish the job")

Reid spokesman Jim Manley said the decision had nothing to do with the efforts of Dodd and his allies.

There are Harry Reid's true colors: going out of his way to deny that the pernicious group known as "Dodd and his allies" had any effect whatsoever on the Senate's efforts to bow to every one of Bush's demands. We can't have any notion that the Establishment's will was disrupted in any way by dirty outside forces.

... The most important value of victories of this sort is that they ought to serve as a potent tonic against defeatism, regardless of the ultimate outcome. And successes like this can and should provide a template for how to continue to strengthen these efforts. Yesterday's victory, temporary as it is, shouldn't be over-stated, but it also shouldn't be minimized. All of it stemmed from the spontaneous passion and anger of hundreds of thousands of individuals demanding that telecoms be subject to the rule of law like everyone else. And this effort could have been -- and, with this additional time, still can be -- much bigger and stronger still.

Call to say thanks:

Chris Dodd: (202) 224-2823

Barbara Boxer: (202) 224-3553

Sherrod Brown: (202) 224-2315

Russ Feingold: (202) 224-5323

Ted Kennedy: (202) 224-4543

Bill Nelson: (202) 224-5274

Ron Wyden: (202) 224-5244

Chris Dodd for President

Keep contacting Sen. Jeff Bingaman from now until the Senate reconvenes in January after the holiday break: https://bingaman.senate.gov/contact/. Tell him any FISA bill that contains retroactive immunity for the telecoms is unacceptable.

See my previous posts on yesterday's actions in the Senate re FISA legislation here and here.

Dems Can Now Request Absentee Ballots for Prez Caucus

As of yesterday, December 17, 2007, registered Democrats in the State of New Mexico may request absentee ballots for the Presidential Preference Caucus. The request form is available at Democratic Party of New Mexico Headquarters, via fax, e-mail or for download at the Democratic Party of New Mexico website at www.nmdemocrats.org.

“The absentee ballot program is aimed at making the Presidential Preference Caucus accessible to every Democrat in New Mexico,” said Democratic Party of New Mexico Chairman Brian S. Colón. “We hope that easy access to absentee ballots will encourage more New Mexicans to participate in this historical event.”

The DPNM will begin sending out absentee (vote-by-mail) ballots on January 12th, 2008, to those who request them. The Party will accept requests for absentee ballots until 5:00 PM on January 21st, 2008. Completed absentee ballots must be returned by mail and postmarked by January 28th. Counting of absentee ballots begins on Caucus Day, February 5th, 2008.  The Democratic Party of New Mexico Headquarters is located at 1301 San Pedro NE in Albuquerque. Any registered Democrat in New Mexico can request an absentee ballot. Members of the Armed Forces, spouses and dependants of military personnel overseas and any other voter registered as a Democrat in New Mexico who is overseas may also vote by mail by requesting an absentee ballot.

The Presidential Preference Caucus is a statewide election conducted on February 5th, 2008 by the Democratic Party of New Mexico for the purpose of voting for the Democratic nominee for President of the United States. The results of this election will be used to determine New Mexico’s allocation of delegates among the Democratic Presidential Candidates to the Democratic National Convention in August 2008. There will be a total of 184 caucus sites on February 5th.

If you have any questions or concerns or would like to inquire about the February 5^th Caucus please call (505) 830-3650 or email info@nmdemocrats.org.

Click for FAQs About the New Mexico Presidential Preference. Click to download a Request for Absentee (Mail-In) Ballot.

2008 NM Democratic Presidential Preference Caucus
Important Dates:

• December 17, 2007: Registered Democrats may request an absentee (mail-in) ballot
• January 4, 2008: Must be registered to vote as a Democrat to vote in 2/5/07 Caucus
• January 12, 2008: DPNM begins sending out absentee (mail-in) ballots to those who request them
• January 21, 2008: Last day to request absentee (mail-in) ballot; must be received by 5 PM
• January 28, 2008: Completed absentee (mail-in) ballots must be mailed in and postmarked by this date
• February 5, 2008: Caucus Day, 184 Caucus sites statewide open Noon to 7:00 PM

Harry Reid Forced to Table FISA-Telecom Immunity Bill

Coverage on today's action on the FISA bill on Countdown

I'm amazed. And relieved, at least for now. The pressure from voters on the Dem Senators, as well as the pressure applied by certain Dem Senators on Harry Reid, seems to have made a dent in the process. Following up on my previous post. As reported on the . Excerpt:

Majority Leader Harry Reid has just pulled the FISA bill from consideration in this session. It will be brought up at some point next month. Without Senator Dodd's leadership today, it is safe to assume that retroactive immunity would have passed.

This is a great victory for the American people. His outspoken opposition to retroactive immunity and the Intelligence Committee's FISA bill made it impossible to move forward now. From a process standpoint, that took the persistent shadow of a Dodd filibuster on this legislative process, a "hold" against any legislation that included retroactive immunity, and today, a refusal to grant unanimous consent to rules of debate that would have made it harder to strip retroactive immunity from the Intel Committee's bill through the Dodd-Feingold Amendment. He brought along some of the Senate's most passionate voices -- Senator's Feingold, Kennedy, Boxer, Wyden, Brown and Bill Nelson joined him to stand up to the President today.

You can watch a video of Dodd speaking at Crooks and Liars. They also have video and a transcript of Ted Kennedy's speech. The lion roars once more. Sen. Feingold also gave a superb speech and you can read the text or view the video (wmv) at his website. As usual, Glenn Greenwald has the nitty gritty.

Bottom Line: Reid obviously wanted the process of passing what Bush wanted to be an easy and quiet one. If Dodd and the others hadn't stood their ground, that's what would have happened today. Chalk one up for the people.

Of course the fight has just begun. Both sides will be strategizing and gathering more info between now and January. We have to stay engaged. Reid himself has reportedly admitted that the massive number of contacts from the public on this were a major factor in his tabling the bill. Literally thousands and thousands of people contacted various Senators, including Reid. Many blogs, as well as Democracy for America and other progressive group,s urged people to express their views in no uncertain terms to our Senators. For once, it worked. For now.

Remember, Bush tried to set up domestic spying within two weeks of taking office. Read this for details, as reported in the New York Times. Quote:

Nearly 1,300 words into Sunday's New York Times article revealing new details of the National Security Agency's domestic eavesdropping program, the lawyer for an AT&T engineer alleges that "within two weeks of taking office, the Bush administration was planning a comprehensive effort of spying on Americans’ phone usage.”

So I guess Bush's claims that the warrantless wiretapping was an emergency response to 9-11 are just more smoke from his blowhole. Clearly, powerful forces were behind the data mining and domestic spy programs. The only way we'll ever learn the full extent of this lawbreaking is to keep the pressure on Washington from the hinterlands. This means you (us).

I think we should all also contact our presidential candidates from the Senate, who didn't think it was important enough to be at their jobs today, to express our disgust: Senators Clinton, Obama and Biden, where were you?

Thanks for the Memories: Lieberman Endorses McCain for Prez

To celebrate, let's travel back in time to last year, when DEMOCRAT Ned Lamont won the DEMOCRATIC nomination for Senator in the Connecticut primary. That's when Joementum decided he'd form the Joe Lieberman Party and run against the DEMOCRATIC nominee. What's worse, a bunch of DEMOCRATIC Senators couldn't bring themselves to support the DEMOCRATIC nominee in the general election and either stayed neutral (in effect helping Lieberman) or actively supported the NON-DEMOCRATIC Senate nominee:

Thanks to BobGeiger.com for the images.

Now if a lowly Democratic Party precinct or ward chair, or a member of a County or State Central Committee did that, it would be grounds for banishment from the office. In the case of U.S. Senators, however, I guess Party rules don't apply. They only have to be faithful to their big donors and cover one another's butts.

Since we're not making any progress in the Senate anyway, shouldn't Democrats strip Lieberman of his committee assignments and be done with it?

Tonight at ABQ City Council: Red Light Cameras & TIF

You may recall that the last Albuquerque City Council meeting was bereft of the erudite presence of Councilors Sally Mayer, Trudy Jones, Ken Sanchez and Don Harris, who had run away to Capo's restaurant because they were mad at Brad Winter for voting for himself for City Council President. In their absence, the remainder voted to approve Michael Cadigan's TIF amendment that would ban such funding for developments in "greenfields" on the edges of the city. They also passed Brad Winter's bill to suspend the red light camera ticket fines until Mayor Chavez's hand-picked task force reports on their study of the cameras' effectiveness in decreasing accidents at intersections. Mayor Marty has vetoed both bills.

Tonight the Council will take up attempts to override the Chavez vetoes on both bills. Any guesses on their success? Among other things, they're also scheduled to decide whether the City can charge those holding loud parties for the services of APD officers sent to break them up -- a bill proposed by Ken Sanchez. Of course the most compelling mystery about tonight's meeting is whether or not Sally Mayer can get time off from her new, beloved, $7 an hour part-time job at Kmart to make the meeting. Baited breath.

(Updated) Sen. Harry Reid Caves to Telecom Lobbyists & BushFEAR

UPDATE 8:20 PM: We won this round! Reid was forced to table the bill until January. See my later post.

UPDATE 9:28 AM: Go to Thank You Dodd and participate in the effort to support the fight against the horrendous FISA bill passed by the Senate Intelligence Committee. To contact Sen. Bingaman:

Bingaman, Jeff- (D - NM)
703 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-5521
E-mail: senator_bingaman@bingaman.senate.gov

************
Oh, he's personally against extending amnesty to the criminal telecoms he says, but it would be so damned unfair if he didn't allow the Senate Intelligence Committee's version of the FISA bill to have the upper hand. After all, members of that committee, like Chairman Jay Rockefeller, might be implicated for their acquiescence to illegal operations because they sat on their hands when they found out some of the sleazy details of the law breaking in closed sessions way back when. We wouldn't want them to face any consequences for their actions. They're Senators! Very Important People! Lawbreaking is OK when they do it.

Reid got thousands of phone calls from citizens irate over his plan to help smother the Senate Judiciary's version of the FISA bill, which doesn't provide the immunity and does provide a semblance of court oversight on domestic data mining. This prompted Reid to ... cover his ass. He agreed to bring both versions of the bill to the floor today. The only problem is he'll treat the Intelligence version as the primary bill and force consideration of the Justice version as an amendment. We all know how that will turn out.

Well, our donor-ruled "leader" in the Senate DOES get lots of money from telecoms, as do many others who want to protect their lawbreaking. That's what counts most these days. Oh, and they wouldn't want to appear to be "weak on national security" and allow the Bushmongers to accuse them of being "for the terrorists" if they were to dare to stand up for the law and the U.S.Constitution!

Sen. Chris Dodd has asked for a "hold" on the FISA bills -- a request that is almost always honored in the Senate's odd tradition. This time, however, Reid feels the need to go forward NOW, despite the fact that the current abominable FISA law doesn't sunset until next February. Dodd is planning to filibuster the immunity for telecoms bill today. Last I heard, Senators Russ Feingold and Ted Kennedy will participate in the filibuster. The other Dem Senators who are candidates for president claim they are against passing telecom immunity, but what exactly that means is yet to be revealed.

Here's what Sen. Feingold has to say as the debate gets underway.

Firedoglake has a terrific post on this issue entitled, Who Will Stand with Chris Dodd for the Constitution?

If you want to make yourself even sicker, read this article on Raw Story that digs out info from a long New York Times article that reports Bush started his push for domestic spying using the telecoms within two weeks of taking office. I'm not kidding.

Can it get much worse than this? We have prominent Dem Senators leading a filibuster against their own Senate leadership. We have Reid and his allies sticking up for lawbreaking by the President, the telecoms and the NSA. Is this the "New Direction" they're always touting as their response to gaining seats in the 2006 election?

Sunday Bird Blogging: Sunny & the Santa Hat

We dug out our boxes of Christmas stuff and got the outside lights on the house yesterday. Our birds love the hubbub. They seem to think all the decorations are bird toys, unveiled for their amusement. Sunny the sun conure became particularly enamored of a Santa hat with built-in reindeer antlers, so we stuck it on top of his cage this morning and he was in avian heaven.

He likes to rub on the soft, fuzzy material and play with the white nub at the top. Now if we could only find a smaller version of the hat that fits on birdie heads ....

Peek-a-boo:

Has he been naughty or nice?

Sunny thinks there may be a cracker hidden in the hat. He loves, loves, loves, whole grain crackers.

Th-th-th-that's all folks!

Click on photos for larger versions. All photos by M.E. Broderick.